North boys' track team wins Southern Division

By Stephanie Cotsonas and Adrienne Downing

Jordan Segal, left, and James Stewart, right, gave their team some much-needed points in North Kingstown's win over the South Kingstown Rebels. Photos by Andrea von Hohenleiten The North Kingstown High School boys' track team won their sixth consecutive Southern Division championship on Friday. The boys have not been defeated in a regular season dual meet for six straight years and they kept their streak alive when they pulled off a one-point win over the rival South Kingstown Rebels at CCRI Lincoln.

"We went into the 4 x 100-meter relay four points down, and with the first place in the relay, we took the win," Coach Charlie Breagy said. "On paper they looked like the better team, but I felt like we had spread our athletes out the right way and I knew we had a good chance. It played out exactly the way we thought it would."

The win brought back memories of an almost identical win in the outdoor state championships last spring. "The excitement of beating South for the division was second only to winning states last year," the coach said.

The winning relay team consisted off Will Cawley, Andrew Buresh, islander Rory Farrell and Kevin Alexander, who beat the Rebel's squad by two-tenths of a second, finishing the relay in 1:11.2.

"We were doing the points the whole time and knew it came down to the relay going in. We needed four points to win the meet and a relay gets you five," Farrell said.

Jamestowner Nate Wigton won the 600-meters with a time of 1:28.8 and then came back on short rest to also take first place in the 1000-meter run in 2:44.3.

"I had 10 minutes of rest between the 600 and the 1000. As soon as I was done with the 600, I immediately had to try to get my breathing down and I started massaging my legs," Wigton said. "I ran a personal best in the 600. I didn't mean to, but I had to because the guy from South was right with me."

Breagy didn't pull any punches with Wigton about his need to get a win for the Skippers in the 1000- meters. However, he was confident that the relay team could pull off the win, so the meet result rested with Wigton.

"I think I was the most nervous that I have ever been before a race," Wigton said. "This was literally the toughest race I have ever run. My legs weren't ready to pick up the speed, but I had to battle every second because he (the runner from South) was on my back the entire time."

Other highlights of the meet included Cawley's wins in the 45- meter dash and the 300-meter run, and islander James Stewart's third place finish in the 1500-meters with a time of 4:42.9. Will Spahr came in second in the 45-meter hurdles, and his brother Mike came in fourth with times of 7.3 and 8.1, respectively. Mike Spahr also placed third in the high jump at a height of 5-feet, 2-inches.

Senior Jordan Segal finished third in the shot put, with a throw of 37-feet, 4.25 inches.

Islander Eric von Hohenleiten came in third in the weight throw, with a throw of 40-feet, 11-inches. "Eric did very well. His job was to finish in third place in the weight throw and that is exactly what he did," Breagy said. von Hohenleiten said he knew he had to get third place in order to obtain the points needed for the win. "The team was strong after my event," he said.

With the dual-meet season now over for the boys, Breagy said the focus for the team will be to qualify as many people for the state meet as they can. "The more people we qualify, the better our chances are for a championship," Breagy concluded.